Ladies and Gentlemen: Bill Wyman's short curly cord

[robkphoto]

So I just watched "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones" and it's amazing, if you haven't seen it do yourself a favor and check it out. The Stones when they really were the Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World (Exile US Tour 1972), completely on fire.

The thing is Bill Wyman plays a Dan Armstrong plexi bass for the whole show and he's got like a 10 or, maybe, 15 foot curly cord between him and his amp. The whole show he's all the way at the end of his rope (literally) and the thing is like 3 feet off the ground straight from his amp to his bass. Is there any reason for this? Was cord technology lacking in 1972? Did Keith not want him stealing the booze he kept on top of his amp (conveniently) 20 feet away? Was his cord like a gate to keep errant groupies from tackling Keith or Mick during the show? Or did he just figure "I never move anyway why not use a short cord, that way I won't trip"? Let me know your thoughts. I actually think it's pretty cool aesthetically.

Cheers!
rk

[JTE]

He had his toes nailed to the stage each gig...

[alexgeddy]

hi,
back in the day they had curled cords, and half curled cords made by whirlwind...Curled cords were (obviously)all curled....half curled were 10 ft of straight cord and 10 ft of curled cord...wasn't much more than 20 ft available either way lol

[mccartneyman]

People stood much closer to their amps in the '60s & '70s. A coiled cord worked just fine for most applications. I love the Whirlwind half & halfs becasuse it kept the cord off the ground. Whirlwinds were expensive at $25. Now we pay $150 for Asterope cables. Hmmm.